Uncharted 4: Review, Follow-up, Odds and Ends
Last week I reviewed Uncharted 4.
There were aspects of the game that I couldn’t really get into in that review, though, both because I had to keep the review at a reasonable length and because some of them would have been spoilers. Now that the game has been out for a bit and people are beginning to talk about its ending, I’ve posted a piece that does that, and discusses other aspects of the game as well–its relationship dynamics, Nate’s relationship to violence, and its emphasis on storytelling through both cutscenes and gameplay.
Finally, here are some odds and ends, moments in the game that I loved or found interesting but didn’t specifically mention in either my review or my follow-up piece. Potential spoilers ahead.

Gameplay as grounding.
I feel like Naughty Dog really started to figure this out with Left Behind, how gameplay can reinforce our investment in characters in many different ways. Far from being boring, having us do things like secure cables to a shipping container as part of Nathan’s “ordinary” job working for a salvage company gives us a deeper connection with Nate by letting us inhabit his experience in ways that go beyond the limited confines that action games so often offer.

“It’s probably too long and full of typos but that’s what editors are for, right?”
Elena’s simultaneous relief and self-doubt in the moment after sending off the story she’s been writing rings so true to me. Throughout this scene, I really felt that I was just watching two people talk about the realities of their jobs and their lives, and it made me realize that games almost never show this kind of interest in their characters, when they give us characters who even have any kind of home life at all.

Gameplay as unreliable narrator.
When the revelation comes late in the game that Sam lied about the circumstances of his return, I was genuinely surprised, because the game had made me play through his story. I didn’t trust Sam, but I trusted the game and my own experience.

“He’s meant for this life.”
“You really believe that?”
“Why are you here, Victor?”
“Because somebody’s got to keep an eye out for him.”
This exchange between Victor and Sam reveals a bit of tension between the characters, not in the service of the plot–it doesn’t set up some late-game twist as members of the team turn on each other or anything like that–but just in the service of revealing character and motivation. Victor’s priority is Nathan, and he’s very clear about that.



“For better or worse.”
Here, the state of Nate and Elena’s relationship seems uncertain, and Elena gives voice to what I actually wish the game had done–”No matter what it is, you’re supposed to come to me so that we can work through it together, as a team.” Which doesn’t mean that there couldn’t still be conflict or tension, that Elena would have been thrilled with Nate’s decision if he’d been honest with her.
But of course they don’t have time right now to sort out their issues and figure out if they have a future. They have to press on with things left unresolved. It’s a specific kind of heavy silence that most of us have known. And in this moment, as you drive in silence toward New Devon, there’s a gorgeous music cue that sweeps in, taking all the weight of that silence and turning it into sound.
Notes
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